CURING DISEASE BY USE OF RADIO

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 55, 20 March 1937, Page 15

CURING DISEASE BY USE OF RADIO

SHORT-WAVE MARVELS German Scientist's Forecast

JJEAT OAN BE ROASTED on a bloek of ice by wireless waves., says the German sci.entist, Professor H. Wohlbold- This is not just a euriosity, but foreeasts a new way of curing diseases, on which scientis.ts in many lands are working. Some time ago the question arosa whether the electro-magnetic wireless waves, which are criss-crossing the air overywhere nowadays, are harmful. Tbe possibility was discussed that the prevalance of certain diseases was due to their infiuence. Also— as in the case of X-rays— they were said. to exert an unfavourable influenee on Fcreditary tendencie® and might perhaps thus lead to the degeneration of the whole of iiumanity, albeit after many centurias. In reality these kilometre-long waves are quite larmless, and appear to have absplutely no infiuence on the human qrgauism. With ahort and uitra-short waves, ie., eleetro'magnetic waves less than 100 metres (and more particularly 10 metres) long, it is quite another gtory. Until very fScently little was known aBout their bioiogical effect; but there must, nevertheless, have been one. Laboratory experimenters who worked near shprt-wave transjnittors suffored from varidus cohxplaints, varying according to wavedengths,; some coraplained of sleeplessness or fatigue and lethargy, others of unrast or oxhaustion, piercing pains in the limbs and especially in the head; others, on the other hand, experienced a pleasant sensation of warmth. As a Tesult, physieists and dOetors have been investigating more fully the effect of short waves on the human organism. Aceording to the length of the wave • — particularly those between three and thirty metres long— life processes can either be stimulated or weakened, sometimes even brought to a standstill. Plants dic as the result of the infiu-

ence of ten-metra waves, seeds no longer grow; and if by chunce one does grow, it does so very slowly, and soon dies. The higher animals— mice, rats, guinea-pigs, hens— when first treatecL become lively. First they seem excitod,, then apathetic and weary, and at last die. 3h many cases their extremiti.es swell, their coats roughen, the hair f alls out, and the young remain stunted in growth. In individual cases it is in certain cireumstances difiacult to decide whether these effects are due speeifically to the short waves, or whether the biological effect is only a result of the heating. There is, however, no doubt that waves lesa than 12 metres long have a speciflc electrical effect. The lethargy which overepnies smalle? animals can presumably be ascribod to some infiuence on the nervous system, i,e., the brain. Speciflc infiuences on the part of the waves must also be aesumed when, for example, as Gemelli proved in Milan University, treatment by rays of certain parts of the brain resulted in automatie leg and arm movements. Of far greater upppi'tanee than the electric is the thermic effect of short waves, which is fundamentaHy different from the heating effect of .he waves (SQQ-600 metres long) which have been used up to now in diathermy. Short-waves have a very important .'ffect nt n do1'!1! Tu t.li i =: respert X-

rays are the only things which can bear eomparison with them. The thermic effect can therefore be used theurapeutically for the internal organs. In contrast to lqng waves, short wavea penetrate bones and fat. Moreover, the effect of different wave-Jengths is dependent on the varying conduction capacity of each organ, so that radiation can be "tuned in" to any particular organ. By experiments on the effects of ultra-short waves of less than three metres on solutions, it has been prpved that the heating of the solution is dependent on the one hand on the wavelength, on the other hand on the density (or condueting capaeity) of the solution. Solutions of a certain density recoive maximurn heat frqm waves of a certain length. The weaker a solution is, the longer must be the waves needod for heating it to a maximum. If liquids of different density are radiated, thp\ are not equally heatefi despite the other wise identical conditions. Make an emnlsion of a weakened sodium hydrate solution in paraffln oil and treat it with rays, and you will find that steam escapes from it at 50 to 60 degrees centigrade. That means, when the oil is heated by short waves to 50 to 60 degrees, the water has already reached 100 degrees (its boiling point.) Aceording to Kowarschnik, white of cgg will cor.geal in water when the

latter has been heated up to 57 degrees by short waves. The white of egg must in thie case be five degrees warmer than the water, since it does not congeal under 62 degrees. The differences in temperature in different media which are irradiated simultaneously may in certain caaes be. very great. In this way fish can be cooke.d in a vessel filled with cold water, without the temperature rising to any appreci,able extent. Meat has even been roasted on ice wbich did not melt in the proeess. It is' just this yarying heating of solutions by short-waves which is of praotical importance, in&smuch as body* liquids are electrolytes of varying concentration and conduction capaeity. They too, therefore, heat is varying degrees when irradiated. Blood-corpusclesA for instance, heat differently from serum. Individual tissues may also be unequally heated, skin and muscles very mnch less. Baeteria can be affected independently of the .tissue attacked by them. Apart from loealised effects, the bodytemperature can be increased by xaytreatment to five degrees over the normal. In this way the doctor can artificially create fever temperatures. The fever lasts only as long ao short waves work on the patient, who feels nothing more than increased warmth. Up till now paralytics have been infected -with malaria, in order to create a healing fever. Short-wave treatment is a considerable advance on this method. Apart from this general effect, Schliephalce has obtained very favourable local effeets in a series of diseases. He has treated tuberculosis, lung abseesses, etc., with *uecess, and has been able to heal boils and carbuncles, abseesses of the teeth and catarrh of the frontal eavity. It seems that in no remote future short-waves will in many cases prove an excellent cure in the hands of experienced doctors.